I have a new pet. It lives on my kitchen counter and is named after my favorite pasta shape: "Bucatini." Though made of water and flour, the two main ingredients of its namesake, my Bucatini is not a long, tubular shaped pasta. It is a living thing that I need to feed every day, take care of, and watch attentively for mood swings and unsavory personality shifts. Bucatini is my sourdough bread starter.
Sourdough bread starter is just flour and water mixed together. When combined and hydrated, the microorganisms present in the flour and the air (bacteria and wild yeast) start to ferment. This fermentation contributes to the flavor of the bread, as well as producing carbon dioxide gas which makes the bread rise. It is the special nature of the wild yeast found in the air surrounding the San Francisco Bay Area that makes "San Francisco Sourdough" so noteworthy and difficult to reproduce in other parts of the country. No commercial yeast from a package is needed to make bread when you have a starter -- and if you care for a starter diligently -- feeding it daily and making adjustments to control for its environment -- you can keep a starter for years. Bucatini is already 4 years old.
When in Rome, right? And here I am in the sourdough capital of the country -- it's time to make my own! But first things first. Bucatini's feeding schedule is kept on a dry-erase board in my foyer. I will keep feeding it (with new flour and water) each day and soon... oh, so soon... it will be time to turn some of Bucatini into a loaf of true San Francisco Sourdough.
